ST. JOHN’S, NL – Eric O’Dell potted the third hat-trick of his AHL career as the St. John’s IceCaps slammed the Providence Bruins 5-1 Saturday night at Mile One Centre. The win gave St. John’s three of a possible four points in the opening weekend series.

O’Dell notched his second, third and fourth goals of the young season as St. John’s dominated from start to finish, racking up 40-plus shots for the second straight game. Jerome Samson had a goal and two assists and Brenden Kichton scored his first pro goal and added a helper. Ben Chiarot, Kael Mouillierat and Will O’Neill each had two assists.

Eddie Pasquale was busy in picking up his first win, stopping 36-of-37 shots including 28 in the final two periods. Malcolm Subban, making his pro debut, allowed four goals on 40 shots in the loss.

St. John’s opened the scoring on a power play at 12:32 of the first on O’Dell’s second goal in as many games. O’Neill worked the puck to Mouillierat, who found O’Dell in the slot for a one-timer that beat Subban high to give the home side a 1-0 advantage.

Kichton added to the IceCaps lead on another power play later in the frame. The rookie rearguard took a pass from Chiarot in the high slot and wristed a shot past Subban on the blocker side to put St. John’s in front 2-0 after 20 minutes of play.

Midway through the second, St. John’s took a 3-0 lead on Samson’s first as an IceCap. After Jason Jaffray couldn’t handle a hard cross-ice pass from O’Neill, Samson followed up and one-timed the loose puck, sneaking it through Subban and giving the IceCaps a three-goal lead.

O’Dell got his second of the night early in the third on a nice rush by the IceCaps. Mouillierat got the puck to Samson, who left if for O’Dell to blast a shot that found the twine underneath Subban’s glove to extend the lead to four.

Providence got one back less than two minutes later from Joe Morrow, who beat Pasquale with a wrist shot from the blueline that appeared to handcuff the IceCaps netminder.

O’Dell capped off the hat trick with eight seconds left on the clock .

The IceCaps head out on a brief two-game road trip through Hamilton and Toronto beginning next Friday at Copps Coliseum for the Bulldogs home opener. Catch all the action with broadcaster Brian Rogers at www.stjohnsicecaps.com and on 930AM This Is Newfoundland Labrador. Friday’s game gets underway at 9:00 p.m. NT.

Notes:
Not dressed for St. John’s: Patrick Cullity, Kris Fredheim, Kyle MacKinnon, Zach Redmond, Blair Riley, Cody Sol, Travis Ehrhardt and Austen Brassard… St. John’s went 2-for-3 on the power play while killing off all four penalties… Eric O’Dell led all skaters with seven shots on goal… Molson Canadian Three Stars: 1. Eric O’Dell, 2. Jerome Samson, 3. Brenden Kichton… Mary Brown’s Hardest Working Player: John Albert.